Evaluate Mill’s arguments on democracy and culture. Is Mill right that democracy (“representative government”) is only appropriate in certain cultural conditions? Is he right that foreign rule can be used to promote the development of these conditions? Under what conditions would Mill contemplate intervention in modern-day Burma, for example?

Instructions

• Read the assigned sections of Mill's Considerations on Representative Government and A Few Words on Intervention.
• It is also useful sometimes to read some of the secondary scholarship on Mill, to understand better what Mill says and to become aware of different interpretations. Such research should not be a substitute for reading and understanding Mill, but a good essay will normally contain some reference to it.
• Select a specific thesis: Mill is right, or wrong, or more wrong than right, for this or that reason (e.g., he ignores the possibility that peoples may become ready for democracy through practice in representative government, or whatever). This is what you aim to support - your essay should be constructed in a way that provides evidence for your thesis.
• Briefly explain Mill's arguments about the conditions under which representative government is possible (chapter 4 is the key text here), as well as his reasons for believing that in some cases these conditions can be fostered by foreign rule (here chapters 4, 18, and A Few Words of Intervention will be most useful, but other parts of the Considerations help put these arguments in context).
• Evaluate these arguments. What objections could one make to them? Could Mill respond to these objections?
• Illustrate whether you think Mill's arguments are correct by discussing a particular example. (This does not have to be Burma). Would Mill say that intervention in that country is justified? What would be necessary, from Mill's point of view, to do for that country? Would it actually be possible for a foreign government to create the conditions necessary for representative government? And would it be right to do so?

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